  Denison Press Friday, June 8, 1945 25,000 PERSONS GLUT TRAFFIC HERE Denison's Greatest Day Celebrated by Invasion And Bond Boosting Event (By a Staff Writer) If Denison was not all smiles Monday morning and all woke up with a feeling of pride that called for a larger chest measure, then there would be nothing that could raise that kind of stock in the heart of a town booster. For we had enough goings on here Sunday, June the 3rd to make even the most confirmed pessimist break down and weep that he ever held aught but the fondest dreams for his home town. No man with any kind of smoldering flax in his soul could have prevented...leaping into a flame at the sight of the thousands of autos laden with more than 25,000 persons here to witness the "Mock Invasion" on the Texas side of Lake Texoma staged to put the Mighty Seventh War Bond sale on the map. That scene enacted with all the material and men that is used at the front lines to drive back the Japs, broadcast over a nationwide hookup, and then to close a day with a hookup on "We Are The People" carried to men overseas which brought to the focus mighty things going on in the town of Denison and to get to tell the world here was the birthplace of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower - - well, it is just simply too much for words to convey to the human soul who was not here to see and feel all that went on. A GREAT PERFORMANCE It was the greatest single stroke ever made by Denison in fine, clean, wholesome, lasting publicity, which carried with it the immediate pushing of the bond sale. and tied on to it the remote developing of this Great Southwest through river navigation as was made manifest by the performances of the dozen heavy-duty boats and landing craft turned out by Higgins Industries down the river on the Mississippi from Denison some 987 miles. Here to witness the event and send it out over the air and wire and through the newspapers of Nation were men from all the news gathering agencies, movie makers, broadcasters and picture shooters to take to the world what they saw and heard of such celebrities of two of the boys who helped raise the flag over Iwo Jima, Andrew J. Higgins, who made the landing craft for the boys, high ranking army and navy men, state heads and county and city officials. It called for the greatest assembly of men and women of varied rank and functions that Denison has ever seen, out-classing the dedication of the great $54,000,000 Denison dam itself, and thoroughly outdid even the dreams of Robert J. Caire, advance man for the Higgins Industries and W.O. Harwell, secretary-manager of the Denison Chamber of Commerce who planned the event over the desk of Mr. Harwell some three months back. Immediately they dreamed the event plans were inaugurated to enlist the support and help of the Higgins people, the Federal and War departments, along with men from the various branches of the fighting forces to properly stage the mock invasion. And to those who witnessed it, they will all say they saw something never before staged before their eyes and unique for inland lakes. WORST TRAFFIC JAM "It was the worst traffic jam I ever saw and it required more than three hours after the show closed for the last car to clear out to the dam after the demonstration," declared Mr. Harwell. Many cars did not get out to the river, so great was the trafficof cars which came here from hundreds of miles. Hundreds of Denison people remained away to give room for the visitors, displaying the courtesy so charasteristic of the citizens of the Gate City. THE BROADCAST AT NIGHT The event was climaxed with a several minute hookup over a nation-wide network in which the story was re-told and the voices of the boys who raised the flag over Iwo Jima, the head of Higgins industries who made the boats, and others were heard as they told what went on at Denison, Texas, on this eventful day. Denison Press Friday, June 8, 1945 No man was more proud of the occasion than Andrew J. Higgins himself who made the boats that so fully demonstrated navogability of Red River and their powerful part being played in winning the war. His speech was a masterpiece of enthusiasm for this whole Southwest and a business man's approach to a new day for inland navigation. He carried his audience along with him at ease and held them in his grip so tensely they forgot themselves and at the conclusion for a second time the audience stood and cheered him lustily. He is a most easily approached man and his warm word to come to see him if "you are ever in my town" is something to be remembered. Any effort on the part of state, county and city police made in advance to take care of the traffic was simply a wild dream, for it would have required 5,000 officers to cover the situation right. Every corner from Sherman 7 miles away to all the street intersections in most of Denison, and all the way out four miles to the big scene of the invasion, was a constant call for police to clear the jam. The people had to work it out themselves. Policing such a jam properly was simply out of the question. At every section where an avenue bisected a street, the jam was continuous for three and a half hours. And the long string of cars, according to a member of the flying forces aiding in the invasion presented a sight like a serpent ten miles long, with feeders at every place where cars to wedge into line. Denison is a city of something like 19,000 souls but there were present for the event a population estimated to be conservatively 25,000 persons. The boats which took part in the demonstration were all lifted by a mammoth crane and skidded below the dam Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday under the direction of the skipper McDerby, all left Denison, the head of navigation on Red River, for New Orleans. A large crew of men trained at the Higgins plant were in charge of the boats.   Waterways |